Reviews
Dellichord Loudspeakers FR6 Speakers
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- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Reviews Reviews
- Published: 01 April 2023 01 April 2023
Here’s a not-so-fun fact: Manufacturing in Australia is super-expensive. In any industry. Aside from the obvious reasons, such as our high labour costs and parts freight to these shores (oh, the “tyranny of distance”), our R&D is meticulous and we mostly tend to have a very high level of craftsmanship – both are dollar multipliers. Time is money… But what if a new loudspeaker product, fully manufactured in Australia and using as many Aussie components as possible, was to launch presenting a high value, relatively low cost proposition? What if even its most expensive part, the cabinet, was precision CNC-machined in sunny “beautiful one day, perfect the next” Queensland? Those aspects and many more are the M.O. of the new FR6 from neonatal Dellichord Loudspeakers.
432 EVO Aeon Mk.3 Reference Music Server
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- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Reviews Reviews
- Published: 01 April 2023 01 April 2023
The space for server and streamer products has been steadily expanding for a few years now. While many brands have augmented existing lines of electronics to include servers and streamers, there are also a multitude of digital specialists purely dedicated to that singular product type. Most offer components with or without built-in DACs. While a select few have developed proprietary playback software and dedicated apps in support, all conform to music providers like Tidal, Qobuz, Spotify and others. Most are open to the wonders of Roon and other playback software. Less common, however, are the sorts of streaming/server products which can offer one-box solutions. Belgian company 432 EVO is a high-level digital specialist with a solid portfolio offering an entry-point all-in-one and a further three streamer/servers which provide comprehensive feature sets while allowing connectivity to your own beloved DAC. Below the flagship, ‘Master’, sits Aeon Mk.3 Reference Music Server, a music playing solution promising the highest level of sonic performance.
Aspire Audio Belgravia Equipment Rack
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- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Reviews Reviews
- Published: 15 March 2023 15 March 2023
Coincidentally located in the Blue Mountains not far from SoundStage! Australia HQ, in a village 10 minutes away and a couple of elevation notches down towards Greater Sydney, new company Aspire Audio brings to market Belgravia, a wisely and maturely conceived first-spawn product. At this neonatal stage, Aspire Audio is solely dedicated to producing hi-fi racking systems of impeccable quality at the mid-tier price bracket. For this review, we gently placed our cherished vibration-sensitive valve preamplification and disc players upon the Aspire Audio Belgravia rack to determine whether music can indeed soar as it’s freed from the potential fuzz of droning vibrational distortions.
Aurender A15 Music Streamer/DAC
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- Written by Barry Jones Barry Jones
- Category: Reviews Reviews
- Published: 01 March 2023 01 March 2023
Jimmy Hendrix once asked ‘Are you experienced?’ It’s a good question. Collecting experiences is a great way to make one’s life more than a little richer. So, when the opportunity to audition and experience the difference Aurender’s A15 mid-level streamer would make in my system, I leapt at the chance.
Revival Audio Atalante 5 Loudspeakers
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- Written by Steven JM Polley Steven JM Polley
- Category: Reviews Reviews
- Published: 15 February 2023 15 February 2023
The French have a saying, “pièce de résistance”. It is a term I am quite familiar with from my culinary background and in its origin means, “the chief dish of a meal”, or “the most noteworthy item of a group.” Since 1789, this French phrase has been used in English and in modern times can refer to anything as being “an outstanding item”, “a masterpiece” or “a memorable moment in one’s career”. It’s not a term I use lightly. Even in the culinary world I would rarely do so but, as I discovered during my time listening and evaluating Revival Audio’s Atalante 5 speakers and reflecting over all my notes, “pièce de résistance” is the ideal phrase that comes to mind. Even the drivers developed for the Atalante models could be deemed the most noteworthy among their peers and an outstanding achievement in this audio veteran’s long career. Could the Atalante 5 speakers be worthy of 3 Michelin Stars?
Harmonic Resolution Systems DPX-09545 Damping Plate
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- Written by Barry Jones Barry Jones
- Category: Reviews Reviews
- Published: 01 February 2023 01 February 2023
I have to admit I was a little sceptical about reviewing the HRS Damping Plates. I figured that, like a lot of tweaks, there’s often not a great deal of science to support the claimed benefits. In addition to that, I’ve often thought that advocates of such tweaks tend to hear differences mainly because they want to hear differences. Since I was pretty much indifferent rather than wanting to or expecting to hear an improvement, I explained to a friend that this might be the first review assignment I’d refrain from engaging in… Better to say nothing than to say something negative right? With that in mind I figured that rather than research the product, the company, the engineering philosophies (if any), I would first conduct my listening tests and remain as free from influence as possible so, despite a desire to delve deeper, I exercised self-restraint. Which means that despite the next few paragraphs, you should know that the actual listening tests were conducted first!
Alexandria Audio The Monitor Loudspeakers
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- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Reviews Reviews
- Published: 01 February 2023 01 February 2023
The high-end audio industry has been shaped by companies hatched as a result of aspirations and achievements from creative engineers. Often, these engineering artisans have firstly been music lovers, who sought to manifest their passion by bringing to fruition the audio objects of music lovers’ desires. In the case of new entity Alexandria Audio, two music-loving audiophiles with engineering chops pooled their skills and shared zeal to bring to market Bali-designed loudspeakers which are far removed from cookie-cutter me-too-ness. Of the two models on the company’s speakers catalogue so far, The Monitor appears on the surface, as the more conventional offering. Yet, The Monitor offers its own distinct twist on the classic high-end two-way standmount.
Kudos Audio Cardea C10 Loudspeakers
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- Written by Barry Jones Barry Jones
- Category: Reviews Reviews
- Published: 15 January 2023 15 January 2023
What makes a pair of speakers a great pair of speakers? The purists would say absolute accuracy and the ability to faithfully reproduce the original source material. And they would be right. But absolute accuracy comes with ‘baggage’. The primary baggage being size and cost and, even when this baggage is accommodated, the speakers then have to work within the confines of the physical listening environment (rarely can a pair of 6-foot-tall speakers perform well in an average sized Australian living room). Then there are the limitations of the associated equipment in order to achieve full potential. But how would a mid-sized standmount speaker like the Kudos Audio Cardea C10 perform in real-world home environments? We shall see…
Alare Remiga 2 Loudspeakers
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- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Reviews Reviews
- Published: 01 December 2022 01 December 2022
There are all sorts of beautiful things. And then there are truly, undeniably, jaw-droppingly beautiful things which stimulate emotions. Italian company Alare’s new Remiga 2 loudspeakers are in the super-model stratosphere of the latter. This is the most stunning loudspeaker design I’ve ever had the pleasure of, for hours, visually stalking in my listening room. It’s the archetype for the cliché “pictures don’t do it justice”, no matter your lens quality or photographic artistry. But will the beauty translate to substance when it comes to performance? Will a tabula rasa design from a new loudspeaker company with familial roots planted in successful electronics have the chops to compete against the established competition? Tearing away past the exquisiteness, I launched to the skies on a flight of discovery…
Vertere Acoustics Sabre Moving Magnet Cartridge & PHONO-1 MkII L Preamplifier
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- Written by Mark Busby Mark Busby
- Category: Reviews Reviews
- Published: 15 November 2022 15 November 2022
This review covers two award-winning analogue products from UK company Vertere Acoustics. The highly-acclaimed Sabre Moving Magnet cartridge and its mate the equally-celebrated PHONO-1 MkII L phono stage, which also allows for Moving Coil operation.
ZenSati Zorro Cable Loom
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- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Reviews Reviews
- Published: 15 November 2022 15 November 2022
Epochs ago, at CES Las Vegas, I recall being Pied-Pipered to an exhibit which was bleeding seductive tunes through the Venetian’s corridors. There, I discovered a system made up of top-notch electronics, ginormous speakers and bijou-like cables networked like giant intersecting webs. These cables were the latest products from new Danish company ZenSati which, at the time, hit the high-end market with all wheels screeching. Man, that system sounded super-hot. That’s also where I met ZenSati’s charismatic founder Mark Johansen. Since that time so long ago, the company has carved a deep fissure into the obesely-bulging cable space. As high-end-centric as ZenSati cables are – like the über sILENzIO and #X – the ‘Zorro’ cable loom under examination here is the entry-point. It’s also its newest line and the most cost-effective since ZenSati’s inception. On paper, these cables should provide a tasty portion of its more exotic siblings’ performance. Let’s test the theory with some hands-on and ears-up practice…
Wilson Audio Alexia V Loudspeakers
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- Written by Edgar Kramer Edgar Kramer
- Category: Reviews Reviews
- Published: 01 November 2022 01 November 2022
Back in 2017, a few weeks post its launch, I excitedly took delivery of Wilson Audio’s Alexia Series 2. Shortly after, I published my review which, as faithfully as I could, summarised the objective qualities and immense subjective pleasures I derived from that excellent loudspeaker system. I referred to the acute, deep listening the Alexia 2 merited (even demanded), as Dadirri in Ngan’gikurungkurr indigenous language. I felt the word encapsulated my sentiments while reflecting both the wonders of the subject at hand and of Country – my home, in my beloved Blue Mountains. Five blindingly-fast years have passed and it’s now nearing the end of 2022. Another muse has landed… this time in a new home, a little further up the mountains, in sacred land, lining the craggier and even grander natural landscape. Under the shade of Mount Solitary, only steps from the jagged escarpment as it sharply bends down to the valley. Today, a new homage to music… even more transcendent. Alexia V has arrived.
